‘Hey, kiddo.’ I kept my voice low and friendly, at the same time giving her a quick scan. She looked fine, grinning at me in that way she always did, like she was having the time of her life. ‘How’s it hanging back there?’
She giggled. ‘Nothing’s hanging. Is Mom coming soon?’
‘Soon, honey.’
I glanced back at her father. The guy was furious, his mouth gone tight and mean. Cat had told me once that she thought he was good-looking, but I couldn’t see it.
‘Annie needs to come home now,’ I said flatly. ‘You unstrap her, give her to me, and nothing else’ll happen.’
‘Like hell.’ Justin reached for the keys. ‘She’s my goddamn kid, and I’ll do what I goddamn like with her!’
Fuck. The prick just didn’t listen, did he?
I leaned in and grabbed the keys before he could move, pulling them out of the ignition and throwing them as hard as I could over to the other side of the street. ‘Go fetch, motherfucker.’
Justin looked like he was going to explode. ‘Touch her and—’
‘You’ll what?’ I cut him off, sick of this bullshit. ‘Go running to Daddy? Hide behind your fucking laws? Or are you actually going to man up and take a swing at me?’
I wished he’d take the swing. I wanted an excuse to punch him so bad it was like a pain in my gut.
But it was like he knew—like he could see how much I wanted to do it—because he suddenly leaned back in his seat, all the tension bleeding out of him.
‘All right,’ he said. ‘Take her home, then. But you can tell Cat that I’ll be back.’ The asshole had the gall to grin at me. ‘With a court order.’
I wanted to choke him then and there, but of course I couldn’t. Keep would kill me if I fucked up the situation we had with the cops, and I wasn’t that stupid. Even one punch to his face was out of bounds.
A chill went down my spine.
Justin had never actually threatened to get custody of Annie before, and Cat had always said that was because he’d never wanted her in the first place. That the only reason he kept insisting on his parental rights was to hurt Cat. And I believed her. The guy had major control issues, and I knew because I had the same deal.
Except there was one difference between him and me. I’d never hurt a woman like he did and I’d never use a kid like he used Annie.
I gave him a grin back—the kind that promised his early death. ‘Do it. If you think you can.’
He seemed to think this was the ace up his sleeve, or something, because his smile turned smug.
‘Oh, I will—don’t worry. Any judge in the country will grant me sole custody...especially against a single mom and her dangerous biker boyfriend.’
Only long years of control kept the grin on my face and my gun in my pocket. Otherwise I’d have put a bullet through his fucking head.
So he was going to use me against Cat.
You always knew this would happen.
Yeah, I always did. I always knew that somehow, someday, the shit was going to hit the fan.
Cat always hated the club—hated that I was a Knight—and, given her background, I couldn’t blame her. But until now it hadn’t really come between us because she didn’t associate herself with club doings.
But now...
Jesus. How ironic that the most galling thing about this was the fact that I wasn’t even her boyfriend—though every part of me wanted to be.
The rage started way down low in my gut, working its way through my veins. It would have to come out soon, but I had ways and means of doing that. Right now all I did was keep on smiling at the piece of shit sitting smug in his car. Imagining the death that was coming to him.
‘You do that, Justin.’ I made sure he heard the threat in my voice. ‘And you’ll get what’s coming to you. No mistake. By the way, where were you going? You know it’s illegal to break the custody agreement, right?’
He just laughed. ‘It’ll be legal soon enough. Hey, Annie. Are you ready to go see Mommy, honey?’
Annie, who’d been silent in the back, nodded. She wouldn’t pick up the really adult vibes, but she’d know something was up. She was a perceptive kid.
‘We’re not going anywhere now?’
‘Nope,’ I said, before Justin could speak. ‘Wanna go for a ride on my bike?’
‘Yeah!’
I got Annie out myself, ignoring her father as he said his goodbyes. Then I grabbed her backpack and stowed it in the saddlebag on the bike, leaving Justin to go scrabbling around in the street for his keys.
Sitting her up in front of me, she grabbed onto my arms without me having to tell her. She’d been riding on the Harley almost since before she could talk, so she knew what to do.
I texted Cat to let her know I had Annie, then we roared out of there.
Fifteen minutes and we were at Cat’s run-down apartment building. Yeah, it wasn’t the greatest place to raise a kid, but she had good neighbours and the apartment itself was clean and tidy. She was a great mom and, really, that’s all that counts for a kid. Annie had clean clothes, food, a bed at night and people who loved her. People who didn’t beat the shit out of her. And that’s plenty more than a lot of kids had.
Cat was waiting out front, her hands in the pockets of her jeans, trying to look casual, but I knew she wasn’t. As I pulled up the bike she ran down the stairs, taking them two at a time to get to us.
‘Hey, honey,’ she said as she picked Annie up. ‘How was Daddy’s?’ She didn’t act panicked, but I could hear the sound of it in her voice anyway.
Annie didn’t seem to notice, chattering on about what she’d done that afternoon.
Cat didn’t say anything to me, but she didn’t need to. The look she gave me out of those big green eyes of hers said it all.
I followed them up the stairs after I’d got Annie’s stuff out from the saddlebag of the bike and into her apartment. Cat didn’t bother to ask me any questions, too busy murmuring to Annie about how she needed to get into her pyjamas and brush her teeth because it was late.
I let her do all the kid shit first, going into the tiny, scrupulously clean kitchen and pulling open the fridge door. She usually kept a couple of cans of my favourite beer, and sure enough there was one on the shelf. I took it and went back out to the lounge, popping the tab as I sat down on the faded chintz couch that she kept covered with an Indian-patterned throw thing.
There was a low wooden coffee table in front of the couch and I swung my boots up on it like I always did, taking a swallow of my beer and sitting back.
I liked Cat’s place. I had a room at the Knight’s clubhouse, and that was cool, but I didn’t have an apartment or anything. It was a choice I’d made a long time ago, but that didn’t mean I didn’t like coming around to Cat’s and hanging out.
Cat kept the apartment homey, with all the decor shit she liked, despite the threadbare carpet and the dingy wallpaper. The most important thing, though, was that it had Cat in it.
That’s why I liked it. That’s why I kept coming there.
She’d been my friend since I was seven years old and with any luck she’ll stay my friend for the rest of time.
As long as I didn’t fuck it up.
I’d been good for years so far—no reason to think I wouldn’t